Instagram has over 300 million monthly users. These users mostly use it as a social platform to view and share images and videos, but they also use it to check out brands and the latest trends. You can take advantage of this platform to help build your brand and your audience. The nature of Instagram is mostly a social experience, so you'll need to think differently than just offering a sales pitch on your products - you need to sell an experience. This requires the use of the right images to expose potential customers to. The aim is to build the right relationship with people so that in the future, they’re confident enough to buy your products.
The bio itself is important, it sets expectations of what people can expect from your Instagram account. Be informative and use phrases and terms that will grab attention. Keep in mind that consistency is key. Everything about your Instagram account should feel like it’s something that comes from your business. The tone of your Instagram should match the tone on your other social media platforms, your website, your Zazzle account and of the products you’re offering. Keywords and tags aren’t really necessary here as the bio itself isn’t searchable. It is, however, clickable, so make sure to place a link to your website near the top of your bio to drive traffic to your website.
An Instagram post is your chance to visually reach people. It’s statistically more likely for people to comment on images than simple text or links. So the right post can encourage conversation and communication with people about your brand. This kind of communication is essential for brand growth. The most important thing to realize is that you’re not using it to sell your products directly, you’re building a brand, not asking for sales. Be creative with professional quality and detailed photographs to make your products and brand look amazing. Instagram’s format makes your images square, so keep this in mind. The aim is 612x612, but post at a resolution of 1024x1024 to ensure high-quality outcomes.
Instagram also offers an editing tool to help you stand out from the crowd. Use filters to add colors, moods, and vibes to your photos. It's recommended to use brighter images with single dominant colors to boost the number of likes you will receive. This is your chance to show your products in real life, in use, or in great settings and this lifestyle photography is similar to what’s available on Zazzle. Use your posts to directly boost your brand. Offer exclusive promotions and announcements to your followers. Promote events for your followers to attend or follow. Create behind the scenes posts to show the life of your business so people can engage and really see what you’re about.
Reaching and boosting your audience can be tricky, but there’s plenty of ways you can modify your approach towards this. Instagram is all about hashtags, so it’s important to figure out how to use them correctly. Too few and you won’t reach your audience, too many and it looks like spam. It's recommended to aim for five tags per post. A neat trick you can do is to include more tags as comments on your post, it doesn’t make the original look too salesy and it will boost the chances of people finding it.
Selecting the right keywords and tags can be tricky so make sure to do your research. Check out Iconosquare for lots of useful information on how different tags perform. Keeping an eye on what your competitors are doing is also useful - you might just get some inspiration! One main point to consider is to keep your tags specific and relevant as vague terms with thousands of hits means it’s less likely someone will find your post. Make clever use of captions to capture the imagination of your followers while they’re looking at your images. Focus on boosting interaction with followers so they engage with your posts and your brand. You can do this by running competitions, responding to notifications and shout-outs, sharing followers’ tagged photos and by posting consistently. Most brands keep a schedule of 6 a week, unless they have a special event running. This is the best way to organically reach your audience without paying any cost on the platform itself.
There is, however, another approach; you can advertise on Instagram using targeting technology that suits businesses of any size. It allows you to reach your target audience via age, location, gender, their device usage and the kind of content they interact with. It’s done through Facebook, so you’ll need to connect your Instagram to your Facebook account and set up Facebook’s Business Manager. Set up a paid ad campaign to target website clicks, conversions, video views and app installs. You can use photos, videos, and carousels (a gallery of photos). Finally, set up your spending limit and define your target audience. This can help you educate users on your services, tap into new markets, drive traffic to your website and generate more leads and sales. No matter if you take an organic or paid approach or a combination of both, Instagram is an important platform to help boost your brand.